Guinness and some daisies

acrylic 4" x 4"

This is a portrait of my friend Colleen's dog Guinness.  I did it as a little gift and gave it to her before I had a chance to take a better photo if it.  I think dogs are fun to paint because they are so forgiving! 

acrylic 4" x 4"

Then I did this little one in Lisa's class on Saturday.  Her demo was on painting glass, and flowers.  I don't think I've quite mastered either here but it did give me some ideas on how to tackle them next time.

Furry Friend

acrylic 6" x 6"

Yesterday in Lisa Daria Kennedy's Expressive Acrylic Painting class we painted from photographs.  I choose one of my doggie Clover.  He is so furry that at first I wasn't sure how I'd ever give him any dimension.  But Lisa had a great trick that I'd forgotten about...flip it upside-down.  We painted these with the reference photo, and our paintings, upside-down till they were about 75% finished, and then flipped them back over to tweak them.  Now I can't wait to do more!

Ruby Red

acrylic 6" x 6"

I started with a warm red ground for this one because there were brilliant red bits in the grapefruit.  But somehow I feel like that made it harder to get the pinky-orangey fruit color.  And don't even get me started on the white cup, impossible!  I will have to try this one again.

A view from above

acrylic 4" x 4"

Another quick quickie.  I thought I'd try an aerial view of apples (in case you can't tell what those are).  But I spent too much time re-painting things instead of just trying to mix it right the first time.  

Pressed for time

acrylic 4" x 4"

If painting every day has taught me anything, it's that you need to have a plan...at least in the form of a thumbnail sketch.  I'm finding the paintings that I think are the most successful are the one where I've actually worked out a composition and a color study.  But on these tiny little quickies I sometimes think I can get away with just diving right in, especially on days when time is limited.  Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't...

More lemons

acrylic 6" x 6"

Again, trying for that glow...

Lemon Yellow

acrylic 4" x 4"

I have always admired the way some painters can get the colors to just glow, like the light shining through a slice of lemon.  I was trying to capture that here and learned that the color needs to stay clean on the light side, and dirty on the dark side, I think.

Strawberries

acrylic 4" x 4"

Still so much to learn....

Trial and Error

acrylic 6" x 6"

I had so much fun with the last orange painting that I started this larger one right after... But I tried using a different ground color (blue) which I felt like I was fighting the whole time.  Then I started a new one today (of a different subject) which is probably going to be painted over at some point, when I realize there is just no saving it.  Anyway, its all just trial and error I guess!  

Yellow-orange(s)

acrylic 4' x 4"

After arranging and rearranging orange slices I finally just plopped them down and ended up with this set-up.  I've been trying to think a lot about composition but sometimes something random works best.  Looking at this now I'm realizing oranges are really more yellow...I will adjust that on my next try.

Sticking with it...

acrylic 4" x 4"

Following the method we did in class, I did this little one yesterday.  I was fairly happy with it, all things considered.  Then I tried this one today, slightly larger and with the cup to add more color.  The cup is actually more green than the cloth although it doesn't look that way in the photo (or maybe the it's the painting...)

acrylic 6" x 6"

 

A Change of Medium

acrylic 6" x 6"

This is from my painting class today with Lisa Daria Kennedy.  She had us start with a value study to make sure the composition was working first, then we started in with just the shadow side (as a dark dark) and the light side (as it's local color).  Here is my value study...

This was a lot of fun because we didn't worry about exact colors (my biggest struggle) and just tried for a dynamic composition.  Then when we went into the color we already had a strong design and placing the color was easier I think.  I can't wait to try it again!

Collage of all 30

Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days